Skip to main content
The decorative female figure became a popular theme linked to romance through such devices as reverie, letter reading, or expectant attitudes. Despite renewed feminist activism and attempts at reform during the years following the Civil War, the notion that women were born to be wives and mothers was still a predominant train of thought during the 1870s. In Johnson’s rendition, the woman seems to be engulfed by the pasture, the faintest hint of the horizon with a roofline visible in the upper register of the panel. Johnson’s composition emphasizes the vastness of the field and creates a heightened feeling of isolation of the woman and her lamb alone in nature. Perhaps Johnson is drawing a parallel between the compliant nature of the pet lamb and the type of behavior expected from women in 19th century American genteel society.
Exhibition HistoryCincinnati Industrial Exposition, Cincinnati, 1873. (Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1873), no. 187, [possibly, as Feeding the Lamb].
Century Association, New York, May 1873, no. 26, [possibly, as The Pet Lamb].
Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition, Chicago, IL, 1876, no. 411, as The Pet Lamb, owner Geo. M. Pullman.
ProvenanceGeorge Mortimer Pullman, by 1876
Harriet Elizabeth Lowden (Mrs. Albert F., Jr.) Madlener, Oregon, Illinois, his granddaughter, until 1987 (by descent)
Estate of Harriet Elizabeth Lowden Madlener, Jr., by May 2014 (by descent)
[Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Chicago, May 16, 2014, American and European Art, Property from the Estate of Harriet Lowden Madlener, Oregon, Illinois, lot 132 (as The Pet Lamb)]
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, May 2014
Artist
Eastman Johnson
(1824 - 1906)
The Pet Lamb
Date1873
MediumOil on board
DimensionsFramed: 22 × 26 3/8 × 3 1/2 in. (55.9 × 67 × 8.9 cm)
Sight: 10 3/4 × 15 1/8 in. (27.3 × 38.4 cm)
Object numberN0016.2023
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextJohnson began summering in Nantucket in 1870, where he formulated his own Nantucket aesthetic, drawing directly on the visual character of the place and the tenor of life on the island. The 1870s were also a time in which the critics were setting up an intriguing rivalry between Johnson and Winslow Homer, with the two competing to see who would garner more favor in the press. The Pet Lamb is one of such images done during his time on Nantucket, in which we see Johnson toeing the line with a subject Homer tended to favor of lone women in nature, surrounded by the vastness of the terrain. The decorative female figure became a popular theme linked to romance through such devices as reverie, letter reading, or expectant attitudes. Despite renewed feminist activism and attempts at reform during the years following the Civil War, the notion that women were born to be wives and mothers was still a predominant train of thought during the 1870s. In Johnson’s rendition, the woman seems to be engulfed by the pasture, the faintest hint of the horizon with a roofline visible in the upper register of the panel. Johnson’s composition emphasizes the vastness of the field and creates a heightened feeling of isolation of the woman and her lamb alone in nature. Perhaps Johnson is drawing a parallel between the compliant nature of the pet lamb and the type of behavior expected from women in 19th century American genteel society.
Exhibition HistoryCincinnati Industrial Exposition, Cincinnati, 1873. (Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1873), no. 187, [possibly, as Feeding the Lamb].
Century Association, New York, May 1873, no. 26, [possibly, as The Pet Lamb].
Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition, Chicago, IL, 1876, no. 411, as The Pet Lamb, owner Geo. M. Pullman.
ProvenanceGeorge Mortimer Pullman, by 1876
Harriet Elizabeth Lowden (Mrs. Albert F., Jr.) Madlener, Oregon, Illinois, his granddaughter, until 1987 (by descent)
Estate of Harriet Elizabeth Lowden Madlener, Jr., by May 2014 (by descent)
[Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Chicago, May 16, 2014, American and European Art, Property from the Estate of Harriet Lowden Madlener, Oregon, Illinois, lot 132 (as The Pet Lamb)]
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, May 2014
On View
On view
